Winning the Heisman Trophy

Football 2008 - College football

A little promotion can't hurt chances

August 22, 2008|By Chris Huston, Special To The Sentinel

Virginia Tech's Victor "Macho" Harris has it all figured out when it comes to Heisman campaigns.

The senior cornerback officially has thrown his hat into the race for the most prestigious honor in college sports. Never mind that no one has been talking him up as even a remote possibility for the award. Forget for a moment that only one defensive player -- Michigan's Charles Woodson in 1997 -- has won the trophy.

Harris is in it to win it. "My goal is to win the Heisman," he flatly told reporters assembled at the Hokies' media day.

By boldly entering his name in the mix, Harris demonstrated he understands the dirty little secret behind the Heisman process: The best way to become a candidate is simply to have someone say you are one. Harris just happened to cut out the middle man.

But Heisman campaigns usually aren't left to a player's whim. Most of the time, it is up to the sports information director of a school to push a player. These days, that usually involves putting the candidate on the cover of the football media guide, creating a promotional Web site or mailing out publicity material. The goal is to increase name recognition and to make Heisman voters aware of the accomplishments of each player.

Over the years, some have gotten quite creative in finding ways to make a player stand out. Legendary Texas SID Jones Ramsey created the term "yards after contact (YAC)" as a way to illustrate the brute strength of Longhorns running back Earl Campbell, who went on to win the Heisman in 1977. Washington State mailed a single leaf to members of the media in 1997 to promote its candidate, quarterback Ryan Leaf (who would go on to finish third in the voting). Marshall mailed out then-trendy bobbleheads of its quarterback, gunslinger Byron Leftwich, heading into his senior season of 2002. USC's Matt Leinart was the first major-college athlete to write a blog, as he chronicled his daily life for posterity during his 2004 Heisman-winning season.

But are these efforts really necessary? At traditional powers such as Ohio State, USC and Oklahoma, it doesn't seem to be the case.

"We don't really have to do much to hype our players," USC assistant SID Paul Goldberg said. "Just playing at USC, a guy will get attention."

There is a school of thought that says that Heisman campaigns don't work anyway, that voters are too sophisticated to be swayed by a bobblehead or a slick highlight video.

Of course, that's what voters will tell you about negative political ads, too. They claim to hate them. Yet every time an ad is released, the polls move one direction or another.

It's the same in the Heisman race. No matter how much people ridiculed Oregon for putting quarterback Joey Harrington on a billboard in New York's Times Square in 2001, there's little doubt that all the chatter contributed to his visibility as a Heisman candidate.

So while no one is expected to be putting up billboards of Victor Harris any time soon, don't be shocked if a hot start to the season garners him some attention as a legitimate dark-horse candidate. After all, he told us he was.